WHY are Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s successful? If you believe Moneyball, part of it has to do with Beane’s penchant for signing players with a high OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage).

A question often wondered by fantasy players is how Major League general managers would fare if they played rotisserie baseball. Would they run their teams like they run their Major League club?

If they did, they’d probably sit somewhere in the middle of the pack. Beane loves Scott Hatteberg for his OPS prowess, but Hatteberg would be a late round draft pick, if even taken.

But looking at OPS can be a valuable strategy for fantasy owners, as it’s a good stat to estimate a player’s run total. A player with a high on-base percentage draws a lot of walks and usually has a solid batting average (which also helps your squad). And if his slugging percentage is high, that means he’s often in scoring position. Those two items always leads to runs.

Also, if you’re in a fantasy points league, OPS can be invaluable. We were once in a league that gave a point for a walk, two for a double, three for a triple and four for a home run. Players in that type of leagues should rely heavily on the OPS stat.

THEO OPS-TEIN

The baby-faced GM for the Red Sox, Theo Epstein, is a Beane disciple. He, too, follows the OPS gospel, and the stats prove it.

There are four Red Sox in the top 16 in OPS. Two aren’t shocking (Manny Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra), but the other two – Trot Nixon (5th) and Bill Mueller (8th) – are a little bit surprising.

Neither Nixon nor Mueller is a speedster as their five combined stolen bases would attest, but they have solid runs numbers. And that’s thanks in part to their high OPS.

Nixon has 72 runs going into the weekend to Mueller’s 71. Mueller only has 16 home runs, which makes that 71 look even more impressive.

CATCH MY DRIFT

Looking at their OPS is an excellent way to choose a catcher. There are so few offensive backstops out there that it’s hard to find one that will help you in any category. So why not rely on the OPS.

Ivan Rodriguez (Marlins) leads catchers in OPS and not coincidentally leads in runs as well with 77. If you don’t have Rodriguez, Jorge Posada or Mike Piazza, Jason Kendall could be the most valuable catcher out there. He’s second in runs and ranks fifth among every day catchers in OPS.